It Is What It Is
by Yuxi
Summary: (NejiTen) After being checked into the hospital for attempting to kiss Sakura, Lee must watch as Neji and Tenten go on a mission by themselves...for a bottle...of alcohol.


**Disclaimer:** Do not own. Ok fine, **I **do not own…

**Author's Notes:** I actually thought of this while in bed…it was really weird too, cuz I was thinking of Sasuke at the moment (well, technically, I'm always thinking of Sasuke…) and I just came up with this!

**Warnings:** Much **Implied **things…:P Don't read this if you're too young, but if you're too young to understand the implications, go right on ahead!

Don't forget to drop by a review!

* * *

_When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading._

* * *

Perhaps they never would've ended up soaked to the bone, bruised, holding a bottle of sake, and completely out of luck on a cliff, a **cliff** for gods sake, if Lee hadn't decided to go and spontaneously try to kiss Sakura in hopes of acceptance.

But hey, they couldn't blame everything on the spandex wearing idiot.

* * *

"Lee, you are possibly the stupidest person I have ever met in my life."

The taijutsu master said nothing as Tenten wrapped a few more bandages on his head.

"I agree with Tenten. What possessed you to do such a stupid thing?"

Lee was now on the verge of tears.

"Well, Sakura-san was just so sad all the time, and I knew that she really missed Sasuke-kun, and I just thought that…if…I just…kissed her and made her forget, then she would be happier, and then I would be happy, because she just so amazing and wonderful and she deserves to be happy, and…and…"

After using one breath to say that run-on sentence, he crossed that verge and burst into heartbroken tears.

"…Lee…did you honestly think she would just let you do it?"

"Tenten! I never thought she would try to murder me!"

"I would murder you if I were her…"

"Tenten!" He wailed miserably, "You're not anything like her! She's beautiful, and smart, and talented, and so devastatingly feminine, an-"

Neji cringed as Tenten ripped off his bandages and punched him in the face.

"Stupid mushroom head…" He heard her mutter as Lee made a strangled noise in the nearest tree.

"You better stop wasting your energy on him…" Neji suggested as red wisps of fury radiated off Tenten's body, "Hokage-sama has assigned us a mission. We're leaving in…20 minutes."

Tenten immediately turned to look at him. "What do you mean 20 minutes! I need time to get ready!"

"Well, I would've told you earlier if you hadn't been so busy bandaging Lee up. And by the looks of it, your efforts were useless. I think you broke his face."

Lee had somehow managed to get up and wobble over next to Tenten. And it did look like his face was broken. A nosebleed accompanied the dirt caking half his face and it looked like…

"Lee…your eyebrows are…crooked…"

Neji and Tenten stared at him for a good 3 minutes.

"Maybe we should take him to a hospital. I think Sakura-san might have fractured his left arm."

So, minutes later, Neji and Tenten had gotten Lee to the hospital and told the nurses to give him a good healthy does of morphine to keep him calm.

"Does this mean we have to do the mission by ourselves?"

Neji nodded.

"Can you tell me what we're doing then?"

"Hokage-sama wants us to get her a bottle of sake."

Tenten stared at him to see if he was joking. "Why doesn't she just buy one from the sake shop across the street from her office?"

"Because she says that the sake from the place we're going is especially good and she hasn't had it for months."

"Why doesn't she ask some other team to do it then!" Tenten yelled incredulously.

"Because Gai-sensei told her we would do it."

Tenten sat in silence. How could people in Konoha be so strange?

"Can I go get ready then?"

"Nope, you used up your 20 minutes arguing with me, staring at Lee, taking him to the hospital, and interrogating me about the mission."

"But I need more weapons!"

"Tenten, we're going about a mile from the city walls to get a bottle of **alcohol**. We're not going to need an army of weapons."

Sighing in defeat, Tenten walked along with the anti-social bastard she liked to call Neji and left for that bottle of sake.

Minutes later, she added, "Tsunade-sama sure is an alcoholic."

* * *

Tsunade's head shot up like…well…something that shot up really fast, and looked at Gai and the other jounins crammed into her office.

"I did tell you to tell Neji that the people are really hostile about their sake and won't sell it to anybody so they're going to have to steal it right?"

Gai looked at her. "You left out the hostile part."

Tsunade looked at Kakashi who was reading his precious Icha Icha Violence.

"Crap. I hope they stocked up on weapons before they left…I don't want two of my best ninjas dying for a bottle of sake."

Then rethought that phrase.

"Okay, I don't want both of them dying for a bottle of sake."

Gai sweatdropped. "I'm sure they'll realize to be careful. Of course…you did kind of put a rush on this. I mean, get the bottle back by sunset? It's already almost noon."

"I know…" Tsunade said quietly, "Ugh, what am I worrying for? He's a Hyuuga and she's a weapon's master! They'll be fine! Tenten always carries an arsenal of weapons anyway. And Lee can always use the Lotus as a last resort if they get in trouble!"

Hm…the day's turning out great…

* * *

"What! Steal! You didn't say anything about stealing!"

Neji shrugged. "Apparently, the people there don't sell sake to strangers."

"I still say Tsunade-sama should've done this herself."

"Stop complaining, Tenten! We're here."

Tenten surveyed the scene before her and stared in disbelief at the sake shops. There were about 15 on every street. And each street only had 20 shops.

"And we're supposed to start where?"

Neji pointed at the center of the alcohol-infested town. "The store with the big sign that says, "**The blonde lady named Tsunade is no longer allowed in here.**" I'm pretty sure that's the one we're looking for."

"Oh…" She said slowly, and then started her way in. "We better change our clothes so they won't follow us after we steal the sake."

Neji shrugged. "I have a shirt on under my jacket. I can just take it off."

"Ok then!" Tenten said, "I'm fine too! Let's go!"

With that, the two 17 year olds who were still too young to drink set off to steal their bottle of sake.

* * *

"Tsunade-sama, we have just received word that Lee has been checked into the hospital."

Tsunade's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding, right? Crap. There goes the back-up."

"Oh I'm sure they'll be fine, Tsunade! You didn't even get this worried when you sent Shikamaru and his team of 12 year olds to get back Sasuke from Orochimaru!"

"I know that!" Tsunade snapped, "But these people aren't just drunk! We all know that you fight better when you're drunk and careless, but these people are obsessed with their sake! They are more willing to die than let the secret of their amazing sake flavoring get out!"

"Really?" Gai said, "Do you know what the secret is?"

"Yea, they put some normal everyday beer and some mint into it."

Kakashi's mouth looked like it crinkled up in disgust. "Does sake even taste good anymore with everyday beer and mint in it?"

Tsunade shrugged. "If Tenten and Neji make it back here alive, I promise to try to share some with you."

* * *

"This is creeping me out…" Tenten whispered to Neji as they walked down the street. The people were staring at them like they were evil minions of the dark side and a few even matched Neji's go-to-hell glares.

"Just don't look at them then!" Neji said, clearly bored, "We need to get this bottle of sake back to Tsunade-sama before sunset. Hurry up."

A few minutes later, since everything seemed to be taking a few minutes these days, the unfortunate duo ended up outside the biggest sake shop either had ever seen. A picture of their Hokage's face was nailed to the wall with a huge X on top of it.

"No wonder Tsunade-sama told us to get it. Everybody here knows who she is already."

"No," Tenten said with a shake of the head, "I think she's just lazy."

"Well, no point in wasting time. You stay here while I go grab a bottle. When I come back out, use one of your jutsus to distract them as we make a run for it okay?"

Tenten nodded as she reached in her shirt back pocket and grabbed one of the only two scrolls she had. "Be careful in there, Neji."

Neji nodded to his longtime teammate and walked in, but not before taking one last glance at Tenten's face. And he couldn't contain the sharp tug at his heart.

Nor the insanely hentai thoughts that entered his head when he wondered what their children would look like if they ever got to go through the process of making them.

Tenten was standing outside with a hand on a scroll and glaring angrily at people glaring angrily at her for glaring angrily at them and wondered just what the hell Neji was doing.

Then a loud crash answered her internal question and out came Neji holding a bottle of sake and running like the wind.

Noting her cue, Tenten quickly did a series of jutsus and jumped up as the weapons poured down right outside the shop. Then she quickly followed Neji.

Seconds later, while they were running in the trees, she heard someone yell behind her.

"Quickly! They're ninjas from Konoha! I saw the boy's forehead protector!"

Tenten swore under her breath for letting the details slip her mind.

"We won't lose them! We can't let the secret get out! The girl's wearing a pink shirt and she'll stand out perfectly against the trees!"

Tenten swore again and quickly caught up to Neji to tell him.

"We need to change direction. They obviously know where Konoha is so they'll know to look for us this way. And please don't tell me you have another pink shirt under the pink shirt you're wearing right now."

Tenten huffed. "Fine, would you feel better if I told you I was wearing a neon-yellow one instead?"

Neji rolled his eyes as they swerved to the right and headed in another direction.

"Byakuugan!" He whispered and furrowed his eyebrows when he saw people were still pursuing them.

"Looks like we're going to have a fight on our hands…" He said to Tenten and the two of them stopped in a clearing.

"Great, they all got their kunai and shuriken out." Neji muttered and then told Tenten to crouch down in front of him.

"The second I stop, I want you to use that scroll." He said very carefully to her.

"But Neji!" Tenten said, "This is the last one I have! I don't have any more weapons with me! Besides what is it you're planning to do?"

"You'll see. They're coming. And whatever you do, _do not move._"

Tenten nodded and a few seconds later, around 40 people showed up. And all 40 threw a few hundred kunai and shuriken at the two of them.

She was about to stand up to dodge them when she remembered what Neji told her. It was good that she didn't move too.

Because a few seconds later, she found herself in a blurred world of green and blue.

Tenten had no idea what was even happening until she felt the wind whip around her face and then the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. She was inside Neji's Hakkeshou Kaiten. And it awed the hell out of her. She didn't even know it was possible, and here she was, listening to the tiny pings of reflected weaponry.

A world of time later, Neji stopped and Tenten quickly used her last scroll and weapons rained everywhere.

When the two of them were done, they had cut down their pursuers numbers to 0. Breathing a sigh of relief, the two of them stood in silence and Tenten turned to Neji to congratulate him on a job well done until she saw his expression.

Blushing just a shade above pink and just a shade below fire hydrant (the red kind, not the yellow kind), she whirled around and felt her heart pounding in her chest. She had never seen that look of relief on his face before…it looked kind of like it was for her too.

"I'm relieved you're ok…" She heard behind her and realized she had been right.

Neji on the other hand, was blushing a righteous shade of red himself. He didn't know if Tenten would end up ok or not if she was inside the divine whirl and it scared the hell out of him to think he might have killed her.

He opened his mouth to say something else to her when out of nowhere, a kunai flew right past her head and he almost peed himself at how close the kunai had been to killing her. Quickly turning his Byakuugan on, he looked around and saw a few people heading in their direction.

"Great!" He muttered and grabbed Tenten's hand unconsciously. "We have to get out of here."

Then realizing what he was doing, he quickly let go and the both of them turned away from each other looking like tomatoes.

"Take off your shirt." He said, and then mentally kicked himself for letting that sound the way it did. "And you better not have a neon-yellow one on underneath." He quickly added and made started running while unzipping his own jacket.

Tenten sighed. She was wearing one of her favorite shirts too…after throwing it off; she quickly took out her buns and frowned to herself.

She had never let anybody seen her with her hair down before…or a tank top…she had actually been leaving that for her future…husband…

Tenten looked up at Neji who now had a nice-fitting and quite thin pale shirt on.

Oh…lord…

And this was when nature decided to turn on them by letting a mighty downpour spontaneously fall.

* * *

Naruto, Shikamaru, Ino, and Sakura were all crammed into Tsunade's office along with all the jounins and they were **all **staring at the downpour, which spontaneously started.

"Do we seriously have to go out in _that_!"

Tsunade nodded. "I'm really worried about Neji and Tenten out there by themselves, and I was kind of expecting them to be back here already, so you four are going to go help them get that bottle of sake back."

Shikamaru groaned. "How troublesome…"

"Go!" Their Hokage yelled, and the four 16 year olds quickly ran out of there.

"I think she's cranky 'cuz she hasn't gotten her alcohol yet…" Gai whispered to Kakashi and was rewarded with painful kick in the crotch.

"I heard that!" Tsunade growled at him as she turned back to her desk.

"And I am **not **cranky goddamnit!"

* * *

Neji had let Tenten run ahead of him because he could get a better view of their pursuers from behind her. But now he realized this was a mistake, because he was too preoccupied at trying not to stare at Tenten.

Not only was she a goddess if he had ever seen one, but she had curves that would drive a man mad. Namely him!

Then, all of a sudden, Tenten stopped, but since the grass was all wet, she wound up falling on her ass and skidding to a stop. He quickly stopped to avoid running into her, but did the exactly same thing and ended up skidding right into her.

Moments later, Tenten groaned and got up.

"The hell'd you stop?" Neji demanded as he ignored the urge to rub his ass, and got up too.

"I almost ran off a cliff." Tenten said blankly to him and when he looked behind her, sure enough, they were about 5 feet away from a cliff.

"Could this get any worse?" She yelled at him over the roaring sound of the warm summer rain and he said nothing.

Soon enough, she was distracted too. His pale shirt had gotten quite tight around his extremely tight body and she imagined her tank top was doing nothing less. So they both ended up staring at each other, less than a foot apart, and she realized that this was as good a time as any.

"Neji!" She yelled, "I think we're pretty much going to die here!"

He nodded.

"I think we should make the last moments of our lives a happy one."

He nodded again, although this time, a lot slower.

"Give me the sake!"

He obligingly handed it over. Tenten took a gulp and spat it back out.

"The hell?" She demanded, "It tastes like normal beer and…mint!"

Neji took the bottle from her, took a sip himself and his right eye twitched. Forcing himself to swallow it, he said to her, "I can't believe we came all this way and we're probably going to die now because we have no weapons left and it's not like either one of us has much chakra, for this stupid bottle of toilet water!"

Tenten looked at him for a long while and couldn't seem to muster up the sadness she should be feeling when someone is about to die. And she couldn't seem to find that beast inside her named Shyness either, so she decided to just go ahead and say it. Well, scream it.

"Neji," She yelled, "Since these are our last moments together, I have something to tell you."

She contemplated how to say it, and then realized it was only three words.

"Well, basically, I love you."

Neji nodded at her and then looked up to think himself. How cliché this was…they were standing on a cliff, it was pouring rain, and the two people who love each other and just decided to let their feelings be known were about to die!

"Ok!" He said back to her, since Hyuuga Neji never yelled, "Then I guess I should tell you that I love you too!"

"Hm." Tenten said. Damn she happy to hear that.

Grabbing the bottle of sake back, she walked to the edge of the cliff, poured it all out, and threw the bottle into the trees.

Then walking back to Neji, she extended her arms, not expecting Neji to run into them at all, but instead, he surprised her by walking into them. He had walked right into her hug. The two of them stood there in total silence except for the pouring rain; wet t-shirt to tank top and felt each other's hearts beating. She really could care less if she died right then.

"I really do love you." He whispered loud enough for her to hear, and this time it went right to her heart. The first time, it was more relief and happiness to hear it. But now, she actually felt the meaning of those words and she really couldn't help but feel a little like crying.

"And I really love you too…" She whispered back to him, and pulled back to give him a kiss because she really couldn't take it anymore.

She kissed him with everything she had and was dimly aware that she had just pushed Hyuuga Neji into the grass and was now on top of him, and they were kissing.

Perhaps they never would've ended up soaked to the bone, bruised, holding a bottle of sake, and completely out of luck on a cliff, a **cliff** for gods sake, if Lee hadn't decided to go and spontaneously try to kiss Sakura in hopes of acceptance.

But then again, if it weren't for that spandex wearing idiot, they wouldn't be this happy either.

Moments later, Neji had rolled her onto her back and was kissing her back with everything she gave and a little extra on his part. They were completely glued together; listening to the pounding rain and wishing the moment would never end.

* * *

Naruto and Shikamaru turned away from the make-out fest before them and groaned out loud. Sakura and Ino were standing there with their hands clasped together and sighed a sigh of wistful bliss.

"How romantic…" They chorused together.

"How disgusting…" The boys said and turned to leave.

Sakura and Ino turned to leave when Sakura's foot bumped into something. She picked it up and saw that it was a sake bottle.

Shikamaru looked at it and groaned again. "We just came all this way in the pouring rain, fought off like 50 people and saved their lives, they probably don't know that, all for this stupid bottle of sake, and now you tell me the bottle's empty!"

Muttering angrily under his breath, the four of them left for Konoha.

* * *

Hours later, although it only seemed like minutes to them, they finally managed to break apart and stare at each other.

Then, a few minutes later, Tenten realized they were both still alive.

"Huhn…" She said. "Looks like we're still alive. And it stopped raining." Then looked down. "And we're covered in mud."

Neji looked around and realized she was right. There wasn't a single person around except the two of them.

"Oh wow…" He heard behind him and saw Tenten staring at the sunset. When he finally joined her, she put her head on his chest and sighed contentedly.

"I'm going to have a real hard time getting this mud off when I shower tonight unless I get some help…" Neji muttered in her hair.

Tenten suppressed a laugh and a blush to reply, "Hyuuga Neji! Is that an invitation?"

"It is what it is." He replied with a smirk, and pushed her back on the grass to kiss the daylights out of her again.

It stayed like that even after they got married and had some of the most infuriatingly beautiful and talented children you will ever see in your life.

She liked it better when he was on top anyway.

(((Something like the End)))

Lol people, sue me if you hated this one, but personally, I loved writing this. I hope you guys caught all the implications when there were some (cough last sentence cough!) Oh, happy belated birthday Tenten! Sorry I couldn't make March 9th! Don't forget to drop a review on your way out:D

Yuxi


End file.
